Theme 4

THEME 4: WATER QUALITY AND HEALTH

Global trends of rapid urbanisation, climate change-related extreme weather events, and increasing human mobility affect water security, and to a large extent, translate to significant challenges in supplying safe and clean drinking water to billions of people in a range of socio-economic settings. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, sets out a dedicated goal (SDG6) to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. Developing an integrated research, policy and practice framework for the advancement and adoption of good water quality management is now vital to achieving its targets.

Water safety plans are increasingly built on specific risk analysis and control frameworks, and supported by quality control and auditing mechanisms. Lack of data, however, still represents a key challenge to current monitoring and modelling efforts that inform those risks. Poor management of urban and industrial wastewater continues to threaten surface water quality despite efforts to regulate and control point-source pollution over the past few decades. At the same time, the need to deal with diffuse pollution of agricultural production systems and animal waste is becoming increasingly urgent. As supply sources diversify and the binary treatment system of “dirty water in, clean water out” becomes more nuanced, advanced monitoring capabilities and standardised water quality across use-differentiated options are critical to ensuring public health in the global pursuit of sustainability.

Source management, integrated policy and regulatory frameworks, advanced and automated detection technologies, and contaminants of emerging significance are central to this research theme. This is a call for papers directed at practitioners, policymakers and decision-makers dealing in the specific topics listed below:

Policy and regulatory framework for drinking water quality

Integrating regulations for drinking water quality from natural andrecycled water sources